Sunday, June 29, 2014

Its that time of the year again. The holy month of Ramadhan, the most celebrated month for total devotion and reflection. A month where Allah encourage all muslims to do good deeds, qiam and the search for that one night which is better than a thousand nights.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

On top of everything that was going on.. i was put in charge of this exhibition to celebrate our 1st year anniversary of services in CTC UiTM.This is definitely my comeback of organizing things after a very long hiatus! I used to be good at this and to get back into the mood needed a bit of adjustment.

The one year celebration was supposed to be a simple affair, an event to just attract the students and staff about things that we do everyday on Level 4. That was the only objective.. Of course, when presented to MPF, everybody was excited and Walah.. hence the VC invite.

And when the VC's office mentioned interest of attending the programme, the whole affair became SUPER SERIOUS.. and my position as Pengarah Program became a hot seat hahaha

All this with the hectic schedule of what i had to endure, Sabah-Penang.. my CABGs and i even had a remote meeting without my physical presence with the Deputy Dean. I guess it was not too bad because the exhibition part was settled even from the first meeting.The opening ceremony was a headache because of protocols and ensuring perfection. I volunteered for the montage as i know only i can do and envision what i want to be up there. If i was to give it to someone else, it would be not to my taste. This nearly backfired as the montage was only completed at 3am on that day.. haha

We had a simple team dinner the night before, and the food in Chiang Mai Restaurant was fitted the occasion. Thank you for Ms Betty (our strong supporter) for organizing it and being with us this one year.

I guess what made the event looked grand was the KRS who were invited to do their rhythmic march and it was something new to the faculty! Never had i felt event organized by the faculty to be happening and the buzz was clear of the excitement. I felt glad that things went according to plan, right from the montage which suited all forms of intellectuals.. haha the Registrar mentioned her worry in her email after congratulating me for the event.

I must thank all who were involved with the whole programme. The admins of CTC, Nurses and the disciplines for the cooperation and first class contribution. I am certainly happy of how things turned out. Prof NorSaadah was visibly impressed and happy to see how we have done it; the one year achievement of cardiac programmes that we have been doing.

The idea came spontaneously.. as we were doing the group whatsapp chat about career and motivation for students via the Alumni. I have always wanted to do something in this line and this was a good opportunity that i reckon will go a long way to motivate te kids who aspire to be in this field.

6 students were selected based on their essay which we gave them time to write. Mafiz was the keen organizer thus the operational thing went on smoothly.

They were in CTC grounds early as all cardiac team will always have an early start. After a short briefing by myself, i had Pak Lah (Cathlab) and Adli (surgeon) to do the talking and motivation. After that the group was divided into two where one went to OT and the other to the cathlab to have a look on whats going on in our lives everyday.

The kids were superbly excited and i can see it in their eyes.Having to witness the procedures first hand was out of this world and i guess an opportunity i wished i had during my school days. It is not difficult to organize but at times i do need to make my run ins because of the nature of my job.

Thank you SMKTTDI and hopefully we will have more collaborations in the future.

My flight to Penang was a bit delayed and i arrived in Penang at 11pm. A quick taxi ride brought me to my hotel called Georgetown City which was previously known as Berjaya Hotel. Azman at this moment in time was still without accommodation and was waiting for me to arrive so that we can have dinner. I have to salute Azman for his perseverence as his car went overheat a few times during his journey from KL to Penang.

When we met for late dinner and check in to his hotel (Apple or something liek that) just beside my hotel i thought that was it for him. Unfortunately.. ada "gangguan" and he had to leave the hotel in mid morning! He tried to call me but i was in my deep sleep.. haha

We had 4 posters for this Conference. What made ours became very obvious was because where it was positioned; together and smack on the highway. We had lots of remarks about ohh.. UiTM a number of posters etc.. and that is the exact reason why we did this!

I was involved in the oral presentation whilst my other team members in the poster presentation. Eventhough none of us won but the impact of telling the fraternity of our arrival was obvious. Alhamdulillah, as network is an important feature of going far in this field. Make friends not foes and i hope that this will be to better establishment in the future.

It was a hectic weekend.. and i survived it. tired of course but satisfied.

Pre Ramadhan post; therefore recapping on what has been happening in the last 2 weeks. I can tell you that it was the craziest fortnight Ive ever had in my life. The hecticness and things just going on one after another made me really exhausted now. Just nice in celebrating ramadhan.. satisfied!

SIGRA was invited to the first Borneo Anaesthesia Intensive Care and Pain Conference (BAICPC) 13-15 June 2014 to run their pre congress workshop of USGRA. Me Azrin and AMir took up the challenge to be the facilitators for thier first ever conference. I was excited to be back in KK after 5 years but it was in fact the beginning of a hectic weekend!

I flew off from KL on Thursday and that was in the midst of our Annual Curriculum Review Workshop in UiTM! Luckily i have done my part to MC the first day and on the 2nd day I am off to KK. KK has certainly changed and the progress was imminent. Had my short walk along Promenade and i guess that was it in my hectic schedule in TH Hotel. We were placed in Mings Garden but i did not really have time to fully utilize the facilities.

It was a simple beginners workshop and the participants were superbly inquisitive. The MOs in Borneo usually have more independence and liberty to do things they want to do. Im sure with right guidance, they can do more blocks than we could have ever done.We had 3 US machines and i guess the hands on session was excellent to involve most of them.

With BK reps who brought us to KK

Thank you Sabah and i certainly enjoyed the short trip. Guess what.. by 5pm i was off to the airport to catch a flight to Penang....

Monday, June 16, 2014

Yup.. the fever is back.. the excitement is back.. the event that all footie fans wait for every four years!

FIFA World Cup!! The ultimate football prize and the most celebrated event in the world! This year it is being held in Brazil, too far for many of us but so far since the opening game it has been exhilarating. Surprisingly all games played so far has been exciting and no draws as yet (till 16/6). It is not like the world cups in the past few editions where there can be boredom but this time around, the teams are all exciting and gung-ho persona!

Of course, my favourite game so far would be Holland's trashing over Spain, the reigning world champion! The dutch masterfully played their trade and came out handsomely walloping the current champion!
Even the Switzerland Equador game gave heart attacks when the Swiss scored during the 3rd minute of injury time after 90 minutes had been played. Simply wonderful!
The games are mostly played after midnight in Malaysia and i do foresee certain days where i will be groggy in the morning :)
Viva World Cup! Hup Holland!!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Its encouraging to know that even now i do get people coming up to me and saying.. " I read your blog.. its entertaining!" hahaha What?? People do still read blogs? Haha Thank you to all my silent readers out there, though i do know where i stand amongst those with thousands of fans and readers.. I remember when blog was a phenomenon and almost everybody i know had some kind of blog stint.. It was the era where people still reads because that is what blogging and following a blog is all about. I had my blogging friends; a small group of blogger doctors and interestingly we do know each other well. They had the more popular blogs compared to mind. Dr Frappucino.. Dr Shah.. to name a few. I know ben abandoned his blog (for other personal reason) and i have not read Shah's blog for a very long time. At one time he was into culinary and food was the galore porn of his blog! Now he is an established triathlete and residing in KK.

Of course then facebook came into the picture. And twitter.. both social media tools which were more friendly in the sense of simpler and small short sentences that connected all of us in the cyber world. If you do realize, a lot of bloggers abandoned their blog because the time spent writing up a blog entry can be time consuming. Paradoxically i think now people waste more time going through their timelines to see what othr people say. Sometimes too nonsence for one's mind !!

I fell into that persona when FB and twitter cam about. My blog entry became mundane and in a way, fb and tweets gave me a sort of thought block. It was not easy to write as how it used to be. And pictures became the essence to express and of course Instagram came about.. haha Luckily I went to Australia and somehow i had more time in front of my PC. I started to blog again properly sharing my aussie adventures and it was a good feeling to do that. It is one of my earlier objective anyway; to keep a simple diary so that either my children or further offprings who can google and look up how i lived my life. I am sure my entries will be interesting for my children; its just that they are not really browsing my blog at the moment. In a few years time, they will be the one who will be my loyal reader. I know Qaisya will be a really keen reader ; and imagining my behaviour at this moment in time.

So apa tunggu lagi guys.. Keep on reading and may my blog survive the times and remains as a reference for future outgoing doctors :)

This was my fourth time going to HUSM Kubang Kerian. The last 2 were during my final year of Masters; the intensive course that brought me to Hadyaai and of course, the exams itself. This time around, i was invited by the department via Dr Rhendra to facilitate his USGRA workshop. I have always been amazed by their department; independent and self sustaining which has produced many Anaesthesiologists in the past.It was just a short 2 days workshop but i reckon one of my most memorable one because of the participant's enthusiasm. Yet again, this was my chance to go to Kota Bharu as if it is not for business, i don't think i would just go there to chill.

Coming on a Sunday was a bit odd, as it is a working day in Kelantan but a public weekend in most other states. Somehow without me realizing it, yup.. it was a public holiday for them as well because of Agong's birthday the day before. Dr Rhendra picked me up from the airport and off we went to the hospital for the initial part of the workshop in the afternoon.

It was a simple basic talk about USGRA and we then proceeded with the live model scanning. I must say the level of enthusiasm by the participants were encouraging and i did not mind at all talking more than i should! haha The dinner was excellent as we went to Juara Ikan Bakar which served totally fresh seafood. I ate all my heart (literally) and it was really with full tummy that i went to sleep. I managed to catch up with Zul as well, (my staff nurse from the Ormoc Mercy mission) and we went to Wakaf Che Yeh. Eventhough it was not a weekend night, i thought the crowd was aplenty and i guess the popularity of Kelantan as a shopping hub.

The next day was the live cases and alhamdulillah we did get our bulk to do. 3 Upper Limb blocks and 2 Lower Limb Blocks. The saphenous nerve was the hardest as I did take some time to do it. The visuals were not great and that impaired my confidence but we had to settle it.. haha malulah facilitator tak bule nak tunjuk..

My appreciation to the USM Department of Anaesthesia for having me there and insya-Allah, if there is another invite, i would surely to accept.

Sunday, June 08, 2014

It can be encouraging when somebody acknowledges your achievements and aspirations. It is disheartening when you cannot share your enthusiasm and passion because of differential of opinions. Having a totally different wavelength of ideas can be frustrating because you realize that talking in a tangential manner can be a real letdown to one own's emotions.

Having different goals and reward belief makes it almost impossible to look for a common solution and goal. Initially i thought i would not be affected by this but as time grew, slowly it eats that bit of growing positive potential and in the end create that bit of doubt in the ability to let things out in the open.I just wish it was easier to share this out but unfortunately the cocoon that surrounds the other mind is overwhelming. How do you penetrate that super egocentric persona?

What am i exactly rambling about at the moment??

Hahaha.. its one of those times when one ponders one's life cycle. At the moment, i have that bit of Jerry Macguire inspiration of writing a mission statement in a hotel room somewhere faraway from home! hahahaha

I was delighted and honored when my former Guru: Krishna offered me to join him for the yearly Regional Anaesthesia workshop in Perth and join his team for a charity teaching in India. Having him around earlier this year to be one of our speakers in the local Anaesthesia meeting certainly renewed our ties and i am sure he too wants the linkage to remain.

Getting involved in RA certainly had brought me to a lot of places; maye not as frequent if i had been more active in WINFOCUS but enough for me to go around Malaysia meeting up with lots of colleagues as well as future anaesthetist who i do want them to be interested in RA regardless US or NS.

End of this year i am scheduled to appear in a world conference and i guess that is definitely something big for me. Hopefully one day, i will be invited to be a plenary speaker as that will certainly be the measure of my academic achievement.

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Sultan Azlan Shah passed away on the 27th of May. It was indeed a sad day as he will always be known to be our most educated Agong/Sultan. Which other traditional ruler has achieved the status of Lord of Justice? Memang power.. I have known from my sources that he has been ill for quite sometime. 2 Consultants in IJN received their datukship just last month for their efforts in handling Tuanku.

1993 Pidato Piala Diraja finals in Pusat Islam was my distant memory of my encounter with him, then the Yang di Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. Eventhough i did not win the national title, but it was such an honour.. while eagerly chasing him to get his autograph;
"Ampun tuanku.. i would be grateful if you could sing your autograph on your picture?" me showing the official finals souvenir book.
"Most certainly.." he answered.
Obviously we were in the middle of the walk way, there were no tables in sight.I was like.. ok, so what now.. hahaha I guess it was the unspoken silence which then triggered tuanku to suggest something!
" Young man.. turn around" Tuanku said.
Tuanku used my back to sign the autograph and of course, i had my photographer (another contestant) to snap the superbly kodak moment!!

Perhaps.. I was maybe the only person who managed to get Almarhum Tuanku to sign his autograph on my back!!!!!

I knew about this ride quite sometime ago but it was only the last day of registration that i braved myseif to join this race.It was not the full century, of 100 miles or 160km.. but only 108km ( corrrection..128km) I did not register for Kuantan Century this year, perhaps too traumatic with last year's experience! hahaha And i guess that is the reason why there were still place for grabs at the last minute because the events were one week after another.

2014 has been a crappy year for my fitness. It had spiralled down so bad that i am not sure whether i can regain it back ever. 2012-13 was my best..in fact the fitness level was the best ever even compared to when i was younger. Time is precious and something that i find it difficult to find back in Malaysia. The weather is another reason as the unpredictability seemed to impair the activities that i want to do!!

Therefore with limited distance practice, me, Azad and Kamal ( the usual lah) decided to join this race. The atmosphere was good; the organizers did put a lot of effort to ensure the event as international as it can be. The number of participants was not too bad, i am sure if KCR was a distance away we could have doubled the participants and perhaps i could not enter at the very last day of registration!!

Overall it was not too bad. I knew that after 70km.. that will be the determining factor whether one can finish the event or not. I was thankful that my cramps only crept in after the 95km mark.. haha boy was i struglling to keep on going and not stop. I knew that if i had to stop.. then thats it lah.. sure kantoi! hahaha
The one issue that all racers had that day was the water station. There was only one.. and itupun kena tipu! haha What happened was it was notified that the first water station will be at the 63km mark.. and when people were at the 60+ mark... no water station in view.. haha even i had to stop at a stall where they sold air kelapa.. In the end it was at the 73km mark.. why? because the first rolling 15km was not counted.. hahaha wakenabeb betul!!

Managed to finish the race in time..Alhamdulillah, but i struggled till the end.. not easy! hahaha

We completed the HO Shadow programme on May 16. I must thank my committee: Naim, Fairuz, Saleha and Jihan for helping me out to carry on this project. They were certainly in their elements during the simulation CRM session! It was certainly heart warming and i hope the newly graduated doctors found it useful.

I must thank Izzat too who with his team, Halim & Amin organized the short 1 day update on emergency medicine. We had it in the Academy of Medicine, Malaysia in KL. I reckon it was a good plan laid out by Dato Amin to get the kids exposed to CME and medical societies. At least they know.. whether they will pick it up later and be active, that is at their perusal. Adults make their own informed decisions.

The closing ceremony was certainly well done. What made it different this year was the new doctors' involvement in every session.They were the MCs, they were the co organizers and not us. I was proud seeing them read the oath, which was a new thing this year. And of course, the videos.. the small short project of them working together for the last time. I must say i am pretty impressed wih their work! Excellent job guys to finish your 5 years of medical school in a relaxed and enjoyable manner! Kudos!

So.. what will be in store for 2015? haha more creative ideas and something that they will not forget :)
And of course to all the young doctors of MBBS 220 UiTM, All the best in your future endevours. Eventhough i did not spend much time with you guys in the last 5 years, of course having the opportunity to be with you before you enter real life was a pleasure :)